Two suicide blasts struck Tuesday near the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing at least 23 people.

The Lebanese health minister said 146 more people were injured in the blasts.

Iranian Ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi said cultural attache Sheikh Ibrahim Ansari was among the dead. Speaking to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV, he said Ansari took his post in Lebanon a month ago and was overseeing all regional cultural activities.

The blasts in south Beirut’s neighborhood of Janah also caused extensive damage on the nearby buildings and the Iranian mission. The area is a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group, which is a main ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the civil war next door. It’s not clear if the blasts are related to Syria’s civil war.

A Lebanese security official said the first suicide attacker was on the motorcycle, which carried 4.4 pounds of explosives. He blew himself up at the large black main gate of the Iranian mission, damaging the three-story facility, the official said.

Less than two minutes later, a second suicide attacker driving a car rigged with 110 pounds of explosives struck about 10 yards away, the official said. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The Abdullah Azzam brigades, a Lebanon-based al Qaeda affiliate, said it was behind a double suicide attack on the Iranian embassy in Beirut on Tuesday, according to the Twitter page of a cleric linked to the group.

The conflict in Syria is a proxy war of sorts between Sunnis and Shi’ites that has been ongoing for 1400 years. In a more practical context, it’s a battle between who will retain dominance in the Islamic nations of the Middle East, Persian Iran or the Sunni Arab nations. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab nations want Iran contained, and want the West to actively support the rebellion against Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria as a means of reducing Iran’s influence. While there might be some value in that for the West, this attack demonstrates that there isn’t much difference between a Syrian state controlled by Iranian terrorist proxy networks like Hezbollah or Sunni terrorist networks like al-Qaeda. The best outcome would be to get everyone out of Syria except the Syrians and let them fight it out themselves.

Unfortunately, this attack in Lebanon will put a big dent in any containment strategy for the civil war. More importantly, it may create an even larger refugee crisis in Jordan and Turkey, with the potential for destabilization increasing in both nations.

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The conflict in Syria is a proxy war of sorts between Sunnis and Shi’ites that has been ongoing for 1400 years.

Interesting times indeed…

“In one of the most unusual alliances in recent memory, Israel is allying with Saudi Arabia to prepare the way for a military strike against Iran. Without American tactical support, Israel would need Saudi aid.

According to the Sunday Times in England, Saudi Arabia has consented to Israel using its airspace for an attack on Iran and also the use of its rescue helicopters, tanker planes and drones…”

The conflict in Syria is a proxy war of sorts between Sunnis and Shi’ites that has been ongoing for 1400 years

You know, this kind of statement is getting tiresome…it’s a lazy way to excuse barbaric actions.

The reasons of “war” from 1400 years ago is completely different than now, it’s just that these countries have been around for that long.

Every “border” country has been basically at war for as long as it has existed, that is just the way history goes…but not always for the same reason, the same leadership, the same goals…well the same goals, to expand and control.

We have been fighting our southern border since conception…but now it’s totally different from 200 years ago.

Illegal immigration, drugs, crime…that was not the case at the “Alamo”.

The institutions and any details involving the players involved is not for public consumption… but rest assured, if something did happen, it was because they were anticipating the Hillsong concert at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Boo freaking hoo. My idea of a good time is watching sunni and shia fighters kill each other. I hope both sides lose. Just another byproduct of O’s stellar foreign policy. The smart power at play is completely underwhelming.

And my kid comes home from a formerly safe NC public school and informs me that she was told that “Evangelicals” (which I’m) are “extremists”.
I’m sure her teacher will somehow link this violence back to the Hillsong concert at the Greensboro Coliseum last night.
Connect the dots, people!
mankai on November 19, 2013 at 10:08 AM

A friend of mine’s kids came home from college and informed their parents, both Evangelicals, that they’re “homophobic.”

If I’m not mistaken, those translate into approx. 2 kilos and 50 kilos. Those are nice round numbers that might be estimated by the size of the blasts.

freedomfirst on November 19, 2013 at 11:03 AM

They probably are. I just think that numbers shouldn’t be thrown around so early into something like this.

I will just say that it is very hard to ‘estimate’ something like this. If there were any other contributing factors to the blast because of fuel, the bomb size that they estimated would be off. All that really needs to be known is that bombs went off, IMHO.

So, do you suppose there’s a celestial video booth, you know, like at the exit of rollercoasters, connected to two banks of cameras-one that captures the surprised look on the bombers face when the explosion goes off, and the other that captures the even greater surprise when the bomber finds out his “reward” ain’t quite what he was promised?

The parties involved here are Al Qaeda and Iran. Only one is a country.

Akzed on November 19, 2013 at 10:23 AM

Also, national boundaries and identities count for little in what is still fundamentally a tribalist culture.

In an article in the April Atlantic, King Abdullah of Jordan stated that his biggest problem in reforming Jordan’s corrupt bureaucracy and legislature is such tribalism. Put simply, everybody votes for whoever their local tribal “hetman” decrees will be the representative. His attempts to create a national legislature (rather like the British model) have largely been ineffectual because of this.

Also, when confronted with modern situations, the locals invariably defer to their tribal elders, who demand a return to “traditional” ways. Recently, when the King sent representatives around to discuss new employment opportunities in new industries, the elders all demanded that the King re-establish the force of “monitors” with sticks who acted as watchmen in all towns and villages, that being the “proper job” for the young men.

The “monitors” were in fact a religious police goon squad who used their lashes and clubs to beat anyone they defined as violating Sharia law. Notably young women who dressed “immodestly”, or were just out in public without a duly-authorized male “caretaker”.

Such “monitors” attempted to “correct” U.S. servicewomen in Saudi Arabia in 1990-91. Several narrowly escaped being shot. (Running up to a U.S. soldier who is in uniform, on duty, and armed with an M9 pistol, while screaming in Arabic and waving a club, is generally not conducive to continued good health.)

The problem in the MidEast is Islamist tribalism. Period.

“National identities” are so secondary to that that they barely exist in the terms we understand. Which probably explains why our intellectual “elite’”, who are self-styled internationalst “citizens of the world” who equate nationalism with “National Socialism”, do not recognize this tribalism for the problem it really is.

And it’s a lot older than 1400 years. The peoples of that culture were tribalist and xenophobic long before Islam came along.

Mohammed simply told them that Allah approved of their tribalism and xenophobia, that’s all.

Maybe Israel can let al Qaeda know the fat little pig Nasrulluh’s location so they can do the World a favor and blow him up too.

Strange World.

slickwillie2001 on November 19, 2013 at 12:19 PM

Heh, play both sides and your neighborhood gets a lot safer.
Funny how the muzzies have no qualms about dealing with Israel if it means killing other muzzies they disagree with.
But it is the region of peace . . .
‘Course Israel knows this . . . . .

A friend of mine’s kids came home from college and informed their parents, both Evangelicals, that they’re “homophobic.”

Connect the dots indeed.

Cleombrotus on November 19, 2013 at 11:05 AM

If my kid said that to me my retort would be: “I’m also tuitionaphobic. You might want to think of alternatives for paying your college bills.”

Bishop on November 19, 2013 at 11:18 AM

And people are amazed at the growth of private Christian universities.
Having taught at secular, Catholic and “Protestant” (nonCatholic Christian) universities I can honestly say the the class of students at the latter two are much better than the former on so many levels. Particularly if part of the acceptance requirement involves a statement of faith by the students.

Half of Syria’s missile and rocket arsenal has been diminished, and Hizballa’s best forces are being diminished, including their home turf.

This big snake is eating itself. Israelis couldn’t be any happier about this. They do feel sad about the human loss in all this, and I count myself among that group too, but in terms of the diminishing danger to Israeli lives, and who’s doing the diminishing, we’re friggen ecstatic.